Threat Intelligence and Cyber Threat Management (CTM) Protection Update for the 2nd week of January 2016

Microsoft Patch Tuesday

This week's updates include Microsoft's Patch Tuesday content. Microsoft fixed several vulnerabilities in their products, including Internet Explorer and Office. A specially crafted webpage could use these vulnerabilities to trigger arbitrary code execution.

We've added IDS signatures and correlation rules to detect the following activity:

Trochilus RAT is a new remote access Trojan (RAT) that is being used in targeted threat operations. Trochilus can evade sandbox analysis, is adept at carrying out espionage, and is part of a multi-pronged malware operation that researchers at Arbor Networks are calling the Seven Pointed Dagger.

We've added an IDS signature and a correlation rule to detect Trochilus activity:

System Compromise, Malware RAT, Trochilus RAT

New Detection Technique - CVE-2016-0777

An information disclosure vulnerability in OpenSSH client (versions 5.4 through 7.1) has been reported in an undocumented feature called 'roaming' that allows the client to resume a session that has been interrupted. The information leak is exploitable in the default configuration of the OpenSSH client, and allows a malicious SSH server to steal the client's private keys. It can be easily hot-fixed by setting the undocumented option "UseRoaming" to "no".

We've added the following IDS signatures and correlation rules to detect this activity:

Exploit kits are used in what are called "Drive-by Downloads." Undetectable by normal users, these kits are embedded in websites by attackers. When a user browses to a website hosting an exploit kit, the kit attempts all known attacks to compromise the user and install malware on their machine. This approach is a common attack vector and a major source of infections for end users.

Cybercriminals constantly change the patterns they use within their code to evade detection. This week we added the following IDS signatures and updated correlation rules to enhance exploit kit detection:

We have added new IDS signatures to include the list of certificates identified by Abuse.ch to be associated with malware of botnet activities. The new correlation rules use this information to detect C&C communications related to several malware families, including:

System Compromise, C&C Communication, Dridex SSL Certificate

System Compromise, C&C Communication, KINS SSL Certificate

System Compromise, C&C Communication, Known malicious SSL certificate

Updated Detection Technique - Remote Access Tools

The typical attack pattern involves first an attack (exploited vulnerability) and then installation of malware. Often this last step includes a Remote Administration Toolkit (RAT) used to gain control to the compromised machine.

We have added IDS signatures and correlation rules to detect the following RAT activity:

System Compromise, Malware RAT, Poison

System Compromise, Malware RAT, Poison Ivy

System Compromise, Malware RAT, njRAT

System Compromise, Malware RAT, FakeM RAT

System Compromise, Malware RAT, Chistudi

System Compromise, Malware RAT, Unknown RAT

Updated Correlation Rules

The following correlation rules have been updated due to recent malicious activity: